What’s Wrong With Multitasking?

You may be doing something
terribly wrong!

Are you a person who has so
much on your plate that you juggle several things all at the same time? Do you
pride yourself on your multi-tasking abilities? Is this scenario familiar to
you? You’re on a conference call and simultaneously scanning your emails,
grabbing a bite to eat and jotting down notes for tomorrow’s presentation?

If yes, keep reading.

You may be thinking, I’m
doing pretty well at the balancing act and I’m someone who gets things done. Wrong,
my friend

The benefits to
multi-tasking are actually WAY overrated.

In fact, it rarely saves
time to multitask. Michigan psychologist David E. Meyer, PhD, along with his
colleagues have found that rather than accomplishing more, people slowed down
considerably when multitasking. Participants who were part of this study lost a
significant amount of time shuttling between tasks of varying complexity and
familiarity, adding as much as 40 percent to completion time compared to
finishing one job and beginning another.

Switching back and forth
among tasks creates stress and divides your attention. Plus, it’s harder to
remember where you left off and requires more thinking. It actually makes a lot
of sense if you think about it. It’s hard to bounce in and out of getting
things done and if you are in the